wow... I had a friend I knew for 2 years move in with me while she had a bad break up with her boyfriend.

She said she hated animals, stole 100.00 from my purse, and was using this poor guy for his money.

She was very impulsive, always looking out for herself, and she pulled a GUN on her ex, and was arrested for it!

When she confided in me about this stuff, I felt a sense of pity for her. It was odd because she was very beautiful. But I realized she was a soulless human being with no direction in life, no compassion or remorse and I asked her to leave.

One more point about my friend and her stalker. She is NOT getting a restraining order because she is afraid that her husband (that she is divorcing) will use it in a child custody argument in court.
I wonder how being other women have put their safety (and their family's safety) at risk because they are afraid of custody issues?

This just happened yesterday morning. First the set-up, my newly single, very pretty girlfriend meets this guy named Brian, they get close too quickly, he clearly knows where she lives,etc. After approx.2 weeks of dating, she comes to the conclusion that he is a player and breaks up with him on Thursday.
On Saturday night we meet up with some other friends and she has a new guy with her (Don). They are going to take it slow and just be friends for now. They met online and had been chatting, come to find out his former girlfriend (they just broke up) had just had a one-night stand with the guy she had just dated and broke up with.

They were alll up front and told us that night about the coincedence. No one had previously know each other. Since it was Labor Day weekend, they were a lot of police out and after we said goodbye that night she got pulled over, had to take a test and passed it.

He was the passenger and was slightly drunk so she let him spend the night. They actually slept fully clothed but in her bedroom.

So the guy she just broke up with came over at 7:30 in the morning, her son's frind lets the guy in, he storms up to her bdrm and starts beating up the new guy!! The new guy leaves and starts walking down the street. The guy, Brian had been sending her texts and calling her since she broke up with him. Now he is acting like a stalker and threatening her and anyone she may date.

I told her not to mess around and get a restraining order asap. What I am not sure about is how she should react to him. She was placating him so he wouldn't cause any more problems and only threatened to call the cops.
This was yesterday. How would others react other than the obvious which is getting a restraining order? I think I would bluff and say i shoot through the door, then go buy a firearm but that's me. On the phone, my reaction would probably be to get extremely nasty and ask him if he wants to die, given if he decides to come over. Again, this would be my reaction, I would threaten him back. She isn't like that, she also has two sons that live with her at least part time to be concerned about.

There are 4 types of sociopath: common, alienated, aggressive, and dyssocial.

Aggressive sociopaths seek out positions of authority, such as parent, teacher, bureaucrat, supervisor, or police officer. They are usually effective at getting their way and are especially vindictive if resisted or crossed, going way beyond what a normal retribution would be.

Aggressive sociopaths like to hurt, scare, and bully others for a sense of power and control. However, they often disguise their domineering tactics, such as by systematically sabotaging the ideas of others to get their ideas in place.

Dyssocial sociopaths are capable of intense loyalty and even feeling guilt and shame, within the group identity of gangs or other predatory subcultures. They follow rules, but only those of their antisocial group.

Alienated sociopaths might live out their emotional life by watching soap operas, identifying with the characters. They won't get along with the neighbors. They live in a shell.

They (alienated type) are often chronic complainers, believe they've been wronged by society, and would like nothing better than to see all of it destroyed.

Alienated sociopaths have never developed the ability to love, empathize, or affiliate in real life with another person.

Common sociopaths are usually of average intelligence, but don't do well in school and never seem to break out of low-paying dead-end jobs.

Common sociopaths are the largest subtype and simply have a weak or unelaborated conscience, no big holes in it. They are not ashamed by the same things as you or I would be ashamed of. They are like feral children grown up, taking pleasures and gratifying impulses at every opportunity or temptation. They especially enjoy and take pride in bending or breaking the rules.

They (common type) seem genuinely happy with their lives, unburdened by any sense of negative self-worth or the fact that they have not been a functional, contributing member of society.

Doctors/pharmaceutical companies sell prescription drugs. Government sells drugs. Are you also talking about tanning these peoples hides. Or are you talking about neighborhood drug dealers. Who do you think is more draining? Not playing down anyones role, but look at the big picture. How do they get here? US does not grow heroin nor cocaine. Nor does the public manufacturer prescription drugs.

I came here to point out the sociopath thread starter was him/herself a sociopath as he/she had deviated social norms with their overreaching hate speech and self-referencing paranoia. But this thread seems much more mild than I had originally read in the search engine.

Someone said they deleted it, I'm guessing for the obvious reason that such discussions cause everyone to doubt themselves and are depressing to read.

So now I guess I will chime in on this one. The suffix path here is actually used in more of a way that means different. Half the time people with extreme intelligence or unique perspectives in life end up getting labeled like this. This kind of terminology is really just borne of all kinds of ignorance.

First of all, compassion is not a primary human trait. If you consider Maslow's hierarchy of needs, other things come first. There are many people who place (and intelligently so) security needs above social niceties... a need for security is not something that could only be hard wired in our dna, but rather would be partially learned. So without any chaotic experiences most people would have a negligible need for security. Clearly though this is not the norm for nature - paranoia is. So really, average people are the deviants with their instincts driven by social convention...

Assuming that you are smart enough not to label the above people sociopaths... then there are the people that few would argue are not sociopaths. The people who would deal drugs and watch them suck the life out of their friends. What is wrong with these people?

Probably the same thing that is wrong with the vast majority of people when they regularly participate in hateful selfish (or tribal morality justified) behavior. Compassion still doesn't come after a person's needs for security have been satisfied. They come after a person has learned they cannot simply force or demand the attention they want from others. We are animals, but the nature of the world made us into something more. People band together and stop selfish people who randomly target others.

So what do you do with a sociopath who deals drugs? Take him out back, bend him over your knee, and tan his hide. Then get a group of people to explain to him (preferably including anyone who previously let this person take advantage of them) that his selfish behavior won't be tolerated. And that anytime he thinks he can get away with it, it is only until the people he takes advantage of catch on.

As long as it is convincing enough that he takes in the validity of the statement... he'll be fixed.

Case studies of these people usually include something like some very attractive guy who ends up around a female that gives the guy anything he wants and never complains. It's the circumstances that create these people, it's the same with corrupt politicians who begin abusing their power.

There are 4 types of sociopath: common, alienated, aggressive, and dyssocial.

Aggressive sociopaths seek out positions of authority, such as parent, teacher, bureaucrat, supervisor, or police officer. They are usually effective at getting their way and are especially vindictive if resisted or crossed, going way beyond what a normal retribution would be.

Aggressive sociopaths like to hurt, scare, and bully others for a sense of power and control. However, they often disguise their domineering tactics, such as by systematically sabotaging the ideas of others to get their ideas in place.

Dyssocial sociopaths are capable of intense loyalty and even feeling guilt and shame, within the group identity of gangs or other predatory subcultures. They follow rules, but only those of their antisocial group.

Alienated sociopaths might live out their emotional life by watching soap operas, identifying with the characters. They won't get along with the neighbors. They live in a shell.

They (alienated type) are often chronic complainers, believe they've been wronged by society, and would like nothing better than to see all of it destroyed.

Alienated sociopaths have never developed the ability to love, empathize, or affiliate in real life with another person.

Common sociopaths are usually of average intelligence, but don't do well in school and never seem to break out of low-paying dead-end jobs.

Common sociopaths are the largest subtype and simply have a weak or unelaborated conscience, no big holes in it. They are not ashamed by the same things as you or I would be ashamed of. They are like feral children grown up, taking pleasures and gratifying impulses at every opportunity or temptation. They especially enjoy and take pride in bending or breaking the rules.

They (common type) seem genuinely happy with their lives, unburdened by any sense of negative self-worth or the fact that they have not been a functional, contributing member of society.

Certainly a soul mate or soulmate is something precious and wonderful to aspire to be a part of. But then the sociopaths, who lie while looking directly in your eyes. Unfortunately so many people use that term to lure people to into their unsuspecting lies. Take the profile of Merlin2003, used to be Hardeen. He talks of all these wonderful things, but he is engaged and living with a woman for 4 years. So what does he know about wanting to find his soulmate. Incidentally he met his current finance online and she just found out that he was engaged and living with another woman, when he moved in with her. Is that sociopathic behavior or what. Woman beware of that soulmate path.

I find it very odd that the "sociopath" discussion just seemed to vanish. I posted a reply to the thread (it was that thread that lead me to this site in the first place....and I only joined MM to read and join the discussion). I hope it was not deleted since it was, in my view, interesting, thought provoking and important.

I posted a reply on the thread, it went through then the whole thing seemed to vanish. So I'm not quite sure what's going on but I hope it gets corrected. I sincerely hope more and more people learn what a sociopath is and how to recognize and protect oneself.... particularly from the more common, garden variety, sociopaths who get away with wreaking havoc in a good many lives.